Strange Hostel of Pleasures
"Live to die or die to live? Is there an answer? No! Only doubts! Only deductions... Only the conviction of emptiness... of loneliness... the desperate search for the whole and the nothing in the vastness of the dark. The unveil of this enigma would be the end of the mystery. The end of the secret of eternity. The apogee of happiness. The mission is accomplished! Men would be facing his biggest conquest... the awakening of his own origin." (opening quotes) Summary The Strange Hostel of Pleasures is a 1976 horror film by José Mojica Marins.[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074499/ The Strange Hostel of Pleasures], IMDb Plot In an isolated inn called "Hospedaria dos Prazeres" (Hostel of Pleasures), the mysterious proprietor advertises for employees to serve his guests while they stay the night of a tempestuous storm. As the storm gathers and night falls, various people begin to show up. The proprietor (Marins) allows some to stay while informing others that there are no vacancies, to their obvious displeasure because of the severity of the storm. A wealthy patron who is turned away vows to get the police. The guest book is already filled with the names of the permitted guests before they arrive; they include a group of drunken and promiscuous bohemian motorcyclists, an adulterous couple, a suicidal man, an amorous couple, a group of thieves who just finished a robbery, and some gambling businessmen preparing a deal to bankrupt a competitor. The number of guests is twelve. As the night passes, the guests continue with their assorted activities. In the early morning, they all notice that their watches all display midnight and wonder how time has stopped. When they question the proprietor, they are all presented with gruesome scenes of their dead bodies, revealing that their deaths occurred prior to midnight in the storm. The motorcyclists are shown as dead and mutilated victims of a massive drunk-driving accident. The thieves are shown shot dead by police after the robbery. The corrupt businessmen are charred victims of arson. The proprietor informs them that the clocks all turning to midnight was part of their eternal torment, as the absence of time is one of the key aspects of their punishment. The proprietor then warns the guest not to anger him, as it would unleash his dark side (the Coffin Joe-esque figure scene at the start of the film). The scene switches to daytime, and the wealthy man returns to the site of the hostel with the police. Rather than the hostel, there is a cemetery with a funeral in progress. Laughing off the incident as confusion, the man and police leave. The coffin is the same from which the hostel proprietor rises at the beginning of the film. The movie itself ends with the proprietor walking in the graveyard. He ultimately turns to the camera as the image shifts quickly to a skull wearing the same hat as the proprietor. As blood flows from the empty eye sockets, the film ends. Cast José Mojica Marins, Rosalvo Caçador, Marizeth Baumgartem, Luzia Zaracausca, Alfredo de Almeida, Enirciley Nunes, David Hungaro, Jorge Peres, Giulio Aurichio, Maria Helena Zeferino. Lobby card set Screenshots Image:Ss-1759182.jpg Image:Ss-1768860.jpg Image:Ss-1806025.jpg Image:Ss-1801899.jpg Image:Ss-1757181.jpg Image:Ss-1800973.jpg Image:Ss-1790565.jpg Image:Ss-1789542.jpg Image:Ss-1787810.jpg Image:Ss-1786785.jpg Video References External links *The Strange Hostel of Pleasures Official site *[http://www.heco.com.br/mojica/filmes/03_15.php The Strange Hostel of Pleasures: Portal Brasileiro article] *[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074499/ IMDb profile] Category:Films Category:Horror films